Also spelt CARTULARY, q.v. [ad. med.L. chartulārium (cartu-) repository of charters, f. chartula CHARTER: see -ARY.] A collection or set of charters; particularly, the large volume, or set of volumes, containing a duplicate copy of all charters, title-deeds, and like documents, belonging to a monastery, corporation, or other land-owner; a (private) register of charters. Also applied to a modern printed edition of such a register or collection.
(Some have erroneously confounded chartulary with charter: see Todd. Johnson’s explanation ‘A place where papers or records are kept’ gives the radical sense of L. chartularium, but appears not to be in use in Eng.)
1571. Campion, Hist. Irel. (1633), Pref. 2. Diverse manuscript Annales and Chartularies.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II. 697. He brought forth five antient MSS. in folio, which were Chartularies of the Lordships and Lands first given to the Cath. Ch. of S. Paul in London.
1700. Tyrrell, Hist. Eng., II. 835. Publish’d from an Original in the Chartulary of St. Giles.
1818. Hallam, Mid. Ages (1872), I. 148. M. Guerard … the learned editor of the chartulary of Chartres.
1873. Burton, Hist. Scot., I. xi. 369. The ecclesiastical chartularies or collections of title deeds.
1884. Athenæum, 16 Aug., 209/1. He does not know the difference between an indenture and a chartulary, between a deed on a single membrane and a register of numerous writings.
